Department of Global Development Studies

Putting Public in Public Services: Research, Action and Equity in the Global South International Conference – Cape Town, South Africa April 13-16, 2014

Professor David McDonald is coordinator of an international conference on public services entitled Putting Public in Public Services: Research, Action and Equity in the Global South being held in Cape Town, South Africa, from April 13-16, 2014. The conference is part of the Municipal Services Project and will bring together approximately 120 researchers, activists, labour representatives, development practitioners and policy makers from around the world working to promote progressive public services, with an emphasis on health, water and electricity. It will go beyond a mere critique of privatization to showcase promising service provision alternatives (past, present and future), pushing forward our conceptual and methodological understandings of how public attitudes and practices arise, how they are constituted, and how they might be sustained. While there can be no universal definition of “public”, the conference aims to improve dialogue and expand global networks on public alternatives, with a focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is also hoped that the conference will offer practical alternatives and help advance debates about public services in South Africa.